x THE MANGOLD-WURZEL 105 



Lettsom bestowed much pains on the introduction of 

 the mangold-wurzel into England in 1786, and calculated 

 that a square yard of his garden planted with it produced 

 fifty pounds of salutary food. It disappointed at first 

 the hopes of its promoters, and a rhymester made Lettsom 

 and his mangold-wurzel objects of ridicule. But he was 

 justified in the end, and half a million acres in the United 

 Kingdom are to-day planted with this useful root. 1 He 

 urged also the use of maize-flour to be mixed with that of 

 wheat in making bread, then at a high price, and showed 

 that it would reduce the cost of the quartern loaf from 

 eightpence to sixpence. He also advocated a sort of 

 " hasty pudding," made with the same Indian flour and 

 boiling water, after the fashion of Scotch porridge. 



The pen of Lettsom was ever busy. Many of his 

 publications took the form of " Hints," and their subjects 

 ranged over a wide area. Hints respecting Crimes and 

 Punishments, respecting Wills and Testaments, respecting 

 Persons imprisoned for Debt ; Hints respecting the Deaf 

 and Dumb, respecting Schools for the Poor, respecting a 

 Repository for Female Industry, for promoting a Bee 

 Society ; Hints respecting a Village Society (in happy 

 Camberwell), respecting Female Servants, respecting the 

 Chlorosis of Boarding Schools, respecting Human Dis- 

 sections, respecting Useful Literature ; Hints addressed 

 to Card Parties such were some of his topics. We may 

 perhaps smile at his method of addressing the public. 

 Here was indeed no stern reformer ; his academic Whig 

 opinions never came into conflict with the powers that be ; 

 nay, it was bad literary form to express himself with 

 decision ; it was enough to say : " The man of urbanity, 

 who reflects upon the fatal carnage of war . . . must 

 unavoidably regret," etc. Yet a perusal of his Hints will 

 show us that most of them contain suggestions of value ; 

 some bore fruit in his own time in works of social improve- 

 ment ; others held the germs of reforms for which the 



1 An Account of the Culture and Use of the Mangel Wurdzel or Root of 

 Scarcity, translated from the French of the Abbe de Commorell, 4th ed. 1788. 

 Preface signed by Lettsom. He boiled the leaves for eating at his own table. 

 Nichols, Lit. Anecd. ix. 40 ; Mem. Lettsom, i. 106, iii. 117. 



